Amazon sued New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday to prevent possible legal action against its COVID-19 security protocols and the firing of an employee who staged a strike last spring.
The retail giant came under fire at the start of the New York pandemic when workers, including Chris Smalls, protested conditions at its Staten Island warehouse – prompting an investigation by James’s office.
Smalls, a management assistant, said he was fired after staging the March strike, when COVID-19 began to spread among warehouse workers.
In the federal court’s complaint in Brooklyn, Amazon accused James of crossing its boundaries by launching the probe, which revealed that the company violated security requirements and threatened legal action.
James previously called Smalls’s dismissal “shameful” and said her office was considering all legal options while calling on the National Labor Relations Board to investigate.
Amazon claimed in the lawsuit that coronavirus security practices were “well above” what was required by the state at the time – and that an unannounced inspection on March 30, the day of the strike, proved the same.
The sheriff’s lieutenant who led the inspection concluded that complaints about JFK8 were ‘completely unfounded’ and that ‘there were absolutely no concerns,’ the indictment said, referring to the Staten Island enforcement center.
In November, Smalls filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of black and Hispanic employees who he believes were endangered by Amazon.
Amazon said it fired Smalls for repeatedly violating social distance requirements and paid quarantine leave, the court papers said.
In a statement, James doubled down on her claims, saying, “During this pandemic, Amazon employees were forced to work in unsafe conditions, while the company and the CEO made billions off their back.”
“This move by Amazon is nothing more than a sad attempt to distract from the facts and shirk responsibility for not protecting hard-working workers from a deadly virus,” she continued. “Let me be clear: we will not be intimidated by anyone, especially bullies from companies who value profit over the health and safety of working people. We remain undaunted in our efforts to protect workers from exploitation and will continue to review all of our legal options. “
More than 19,000 – or 1.44 percent of Amazon’s frontline workers in the US – have contracted COVID-19 since September, the company said.
With pole wires